1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescent device, a method for producing an organic electroluminescent device, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
Organic electroluminescent elements have been applied to light sources of printers. When organic electroluminescent elements are used as light sources of printers, it is important that the organic electroluminescent elements should emit highly uniform monochromatic light. As a method for forming organic electroluminescent elements with high uniformity, a method has been known in which an organic-light-emitting-layer precursor is applied to the entire surface of a substrate by, for example, spin coating, followed by drying and annealing, and then an unnecessary portion is removed by etching. JP-A-2007-242436 discloses a method including etching an organic light-emitting layer with a second electrode (which cooperates with a first electrode located adjacent to a substrate to supply the organic light-emitting layer with current) and a protective member arranged on the second electrode, the second electrode and the protective member serving as a mask.
In the case of employing the foregoing method, the second electrode needs to withstand etching and thus needs to have a large thickness. The use of the electrode having a large thickness reduces light transmittance, so that it is difficult to use a top-emission structure. Thus, a bottom-emission structure should be used. In the case of using the bottom-emission structure, light radiates from the substrate having a thickness of about 0.5 mm, thus disadvantageously leading to difficulty in designing an optical system that controls light emanating from the organic light-emitting layer.